Deuteronomy

Johanna W. H. van Wijk-Bos, a native of The Netherlands, taught as professor of Old Testament at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary from 1977 to 2017. She serves the Presbyterian Church as an ordained pastor and is deeply engaged with issues of equity in terms of gender and race. Born in occupied Europe during the Shoah, she is committed to an analysis of Christian-Jewish relations and improvement of these relations, especially in terms of a Christian reading of Scripture. Her commentaries on the Former Prophets appeared in 2021. She assists Rabbi David Ariel-Joel in teaching Torah at the Temple in Louisville and is co-writing a volume with him: Set Apart: Josef and His Family (Smyth & Helwys, forthcoming).

• ContentsList of Abbreviations   ixAcknowledgments   xiList of Contributors   xiiiForeword: “Tell It on the Mountain”—or, “And You Shall Tell Your Daughter [as Well]”   xviiAthalya Brenner-IdanEditor’s Introduction to Wisdom Commentary: “She Is a Breath of the Power of God” (Wis 7:25)   xxiBarbara E. Reid, OPAuthor’s Introduction   xliPART A: IN RETROSPECT Deuteronomy 1:1–11:25Portion I: Words (1:1–3:22)   1Portion II: I Pleaded (3:23–7:11)   27Portion III: Therefore (7:12–11:25)   66PART B: THE WAY TO LIVE Deuteronomy 11:26–25:19Portion IV: See (11:26–16:17)   94Portion V: Judges (16:18–21:9)   126Portion VI: When You Go Out (21:10–25:19)   148PART C: PROSPECTS Deuteronomy 26:1–34:12Portion VII: When You Enter (26:1–29:8[9])   200Portion VIII: You Are Standing (29:9[10]–30:20)   222Portion IX: He Went (31:1-30)   229Portion X: Give Ear! (32:1-52)   235Portion XI: This Is the Blessing (33:1–34:12)   243Afterword   248Works Cited   249Index of Scripture References and Other Ancient Writings   264Index of Subjects   278

“Just as multiple, often contradictory, voices and traditions were woven together two and a half millennia ago to create the extended sermonic text that came to be called Deuteronomy—or, in Hebrew, Devarim’ / ‘Words’—we now have an extended polyphonic act of homage, interrogation, and interpretation fit for twenty-first century readers, scholars, preachers, and religious institutions. Anyone with a curiosity about the multiple dimensions of biblical texts will relish the wealth and depth of scholarship on display: the original Hebrew text is offered in a contemporary translation and is accompanied on the page by mini-essays and excurses composed by a formidable range of modern commentators, many offering fresh insights from a feminist perspective. The footnotes that accompany the text on every page—opening up avenues for further research— come from a dazzling range of traditional and contemporary sources. This is multi-vocal biblical scholarship at its best: discursive, erudite, and seriously committed to helping the reader listen in afresh to the ‘Words’ of old.”Howard Cooper, psychoanalyst and rabbi